Wednesday, September 1, 2010

Wedding day recap: wrapping up the reception

As you saw in the last post, all of our guests were gettin' down with their bad selves on the dance floor for as long as the DJ was playing tunes. Of course, we had to wrap up by 11 p.m. and fit a few more customary wedding things in before all was said and done, so we couldn't just boogie on through.

About a week after the wedding, I blogged about the wedding regrets I had at that point: one of them was that I feared I hadn't tossed my bouquet well enough. Well, once I saw these photos I knew that I had worried needlessly. NAILED IT. It definitely was not the line drive I thought I had thrown! I love these shots:

Mary Jacob, one of my best high school girlfriends, caught it. So classic:

After the toss (to Single Ladies, what else these days?) the dance party continued, until it was eventually time for Jon and I to do our last dance. (The DJ tried to make Yeah! the final song before we had the floor to ourselves again, but he graciously added another three minutes or so to the evening by playing Hey Ya! at my urging. Then we had our last dance.) Tom the DJ announced it and the floor cleared to make way for us as the opening chords to Kathleen filled the room. I sang along the whole time:

All the other girls here are stars -- you are the northern lights...

This next picture is probably the most gorgeous of the whole wedding. I'm still debating whether or not it's socially acceptable to have this photo enlarged and framed. I love how it captures the end of the night so perfectly:

After our song was over, the DJ instructed everyone to head out to the steps and grab some flower petals on the way so they could throw them at us as we made our big exit. The space cleared out pretty quickly, though I did manage a couple of Smilebooth photos with my college roomies and Jon and I took a few shots since we hadn't been in there just the two of us yet. (My favorite Smilebooth shot is one we took right before we left!) Amanda, our brilliant coordinator, came in to drag us away from the Smilebooth so we could depart and get out of the venue on time. We walked into the entry hallway and waited for a sign from the photographers telling us we were good to go...

At the bottom of the stairs, before we hopped into our Lincoln town car, we hugged and kissed our parents. When we got ourselves into the car, it was the first time either of us had sat down all night since we ate. (OH GOD MY FEET.) We had some trouble rolling down the window, but we eventually managed so Jesse & Whitney could get one last shot before we pulled away:

Jon and I spoke briefly with our driver, then settled into the cushy seat, popped open the cold Sprite that was in the cupholder and passed it back and forth as we talked about how much damn fun the day had been.

Well, that brings me to the end of the evening, at least in terms of professional pictures! I have a few more details to share with you before I'm totally done. The party certainly did not end at this point, though! More on that later...

Gorgeous! I also love the photo of you and Jon dancing. And I totally remember that feeling of sinking in to the car seat at the end of the night. Funny how you ignore any and all discomfort until that very moment!